GET OFF MY LEG...and other useful sayings?

Ever meet a person for the first time and they just blurt out some unique phrase or saying that you know is now going to be stuck in your memory banks like Walt Disney Worlds, "It's a small World." Well if you are humming the lovely ditty right now, then yes you understand.

You first need to understand that John and I are not overly social people, we DO NOT go out of our way to introduce ourselves to strangers. So it came as a complete shock to us when a very nice couple from California pulled into the site next to us and invited us over to their very nice motorhome for a cocktail. Since we are socially retarded, we had no idea how to politely say no, so we went. Now comes the fun part.

NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE UN-INNOCENT. (But god only knows who actually reads this, so better safe then sorry).

Okay, so here was our night. Butch and Doris, a nice couple from california invited us over for cocktails. They have (3) bloodhounds in their over $300,000.00 motorhome and we instantly gravitate towards the dogs. They don't require clever conversation, just a scratch on their bellies, leaving me to not have to come up with conversation topics. We let our new friends tell us about themselves. Got the impression that they made their money in maybe not the most reputable ways, and are now traveling for a short period of time. Butch, a self proclaimed REDNECK, proceeds to consume over (5) whiskey and cokes and tell us things that really we didnt want to know. His very lovely wife, numerous times, reminded Butch to watch his language, not be so rude, etc.

Now out of the blue, Butch looks at Doris and says "GET OFF MY LEG". There was really no need at this point to ask, Why Butch what do you possibly mean by that statement. All I could hope for was that John would not blow wine out of his nose due to excessive laughter. Needless to say, that phrase was used numerous times through out our evening. Finally Butch passed out on the floow of their motorhome and we escaped.

The next day, both John and I thought of numerous times in the past where we would have loved to have used the phrase. But the one that immediately came to both of our minds was dealing with a motorhome salesman. Now if you have ever bought a car you know actually what we mean when you get to the point with a salesperson that you would love to say. "Get off my leg".

So from us and Butch, please feel free to use the above saying when the appropriate moment arises.

PS> Butch's other unique phrase of the evening: Fight, Fuck or play marbles. Have no idea what that means.

Whipple Mountains and Turtle Mountains Wilderness Areas

It has taken me some time to come to a point where I stopped looking at each area, compare it to the last one, vote better or worse and move on. At some point in your life you really have to start looking at things for what they are. Not what they might be, could be, should be or "compared to" whatever to find their true meaning or value. After we left Arches and Zion we found ourselves in the "desert". No longer in a canyon gorge or arch invested national park, but instead in the open expanse of central west Arizona. Parker Arizona to be exact. Yes there is the Colorado River, but move 1 mile from the lush green borders of the river and you enter a world where the green landscape icons are cacti. No sweeping arches, no vertigo creating canyons, no red rocks or snow capped La Sal Mountains. Here it is dry, brownish grey and to the human eye devoid of animal life. We decide to hike in two more wilderness areas while we were down here, the first "Whipple Mountains and the second Turtle Mountains.








Whipple Mountain wilderness is located south of Lake Havasu City and can be entered from numerous power line roads. We decided to enter from an area called Whipple Wash and hike into the canyon beyond. The area was just starting to turn light green from a previous light rain. The canyon would have been unnervingly quiet, except the day that we hiked we had a 30 mph wind. No animals, no birds, no nothing for 3 miles in.










We had a brief lunch in a small area where we could get out of the wind.












We hiked up several small side canyons to find ourselved choked out by vegetation.




Heading back to the car we started to discuss why we never seem to see any type of wildlife. We both showered, we try to walk quietly, I even put the camera in my backpack. Still nothing.



Just when I thought we would be hiking one more wilderness area with no animal sighting, we heard the most hilarious sound. I had never heard a burro before, and since he appeared to be having a huge hissy fit, the sound made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants.


Granted we would have never known that the burro was there had he not annouced his presence.












So burros actually do exist in a natural setting.





Needless to say, maybe there is animal life teaming in these wilderness areas, they just have not be informed that they are to annouce themselves so that we can see them.



Some one needs to get the message out






Okay, so the second area was Turtle Mountains. We basically went here because John saw on a map that it was a great place to do rock hounding. So off we drove for an hour through some of the most un-entertaining landscape there is. Vidal Junction to Las Vegas. A vast wasteland of nothing. We miraculously found the turn off for the area and drove for about 5 miles out a "not maintained" 2 wheel drive road (according to BLM). For everyone else it is a 4 mile drive road only. We knew we were there since Arizona and California BLM wilderness areas are usually designated with really nice signs (shitty roads but nice signs)




We heading off on what appeared to be an old access road towards to the canyons. As we walked we noticed that there were tons of interesting rocks that we had not seen in any other area around Parker. Pretty soon we were miles into the canyon, not having seen much as we had been watching our feet looking for rocks.




John spent alot of time with his rock hammer seeing if he could find that one 5 pound gold nugget. No luck on the nugget by the way. We spent several hours just hiking around, enjoy the sun, the time together and the opportunity to be outside. It was then that I realized that while I was so busy worried about seeing an animal, I was missing seeing the area for what it had to offer. It is true desert. Hot, dry, and hostile but still beautiful. It is what it is.


Realizing that maybe I was being a little selfish, here getting to hike everyday while other people have to work, I remembered how fortunate I am.


Being retired and free to hike in an old boring canyon. Poor me. But it is what it is!

Gibralter Mountain and East Cactus Plains Wilderness Area

Believe it or not we are actually back at hiking in the wilderness areas. November and December were in Moab, UT volunteering for the national parks. Now we outside of Parker Arizona on the Colorado River. There are numerous wilderness areas surrounding us and we plan to get into as many as possible in the month and a half that we are planning on being here.

Arizona BLM has really nice signs for their wilderness areas and not so great directions or maps. We did the ever popular go out, drive around until you find a road that looks right, drive down, realize it is the wrong road and try again. Anyway we found the Gibraltar Mountain Wilderness fairly easy as there was a freaking big mountain to aim towards.

After being in Moab the scenery was amazing different and yet desert beautiful in the same way. Not expecting to see anything or having a specific destination allowed us to just wander and take in the surroundings.

Even though the Colorado River is less then 15 miles away, this is very dry landscape. We saw no wildlife, which is not unusual for us, on our hike thru the area.

We did see numerous varieties of cacti which I love.

We hiked for about 3 hours around the area and saw numerous rock formations while soaking up the sun.

Wanting to get to our second wilderness area we walked back to our car and heading for East Cactus Plains wilderness.

EAST CACTUS PLAINS.

We figured that this was one of those wilderness areas where four wheelers have basically tore it up, traded it to BLM as "wilderness" and got a brand new area to ride in.

There is basically open desert for as far as the eye can see. A power line borders one side and a military bombing area (heard did not see) in the distance. We took a short walk-a-bout thru the area to just look around.

The area was barren and yet pretty in a way that I cant really explain. If you have ever been in the desert, then you understand.

A Canyon in a drop of water

John and I were hiking in the Red Cliffs Recreation Area on the Red Reef trail when we came upon a small drop of water frozen from a log. After taking the picture and viewing it on screen, John noticed that you could see the vague outline of the canyon in the water droplet.





Not sure why this one picture made me think of writing a poem, but it did, so here it is.

A Canyon in a Drop of Water


A canyon in a drop of water
A desert in a grain of sand
Hope in a flowers new bloom
Clarity in a clear blue sky
Strength in an old oak tree

Love in the beat of a heart
Destiny in a blink of an eye
Misunderstanding in a furrow of a brow
Pain in the cry of a small child
A promise from the soft whisper in an ear

Realization in the flash of lightening
Promise in a spring shower’s rainbow
Possibilities in the mistakes we’ve made
The future in the star filled night sky
The past in the friends who’ve always been there

A Wish in the palm of your hand
A Dream………
A Moment…
A Lifetime…….

Great moments measured by the smallest of indications

Darlene Lundstrum; 01-05-09

Beaver Dam Moutain Wilderness, St George, Utah

Okay, I know that is has been awhile since my last post. Lets just say that we have been on hiatus and are now back on our wilderness adventure. For the last two months, we have been in Moab Utah doing volunteer work for Arches National Park. The plan was to stay a month, do some work for the park, see the desert in the snow and move on. Our one month stay turned into two, and would have been longer had the weather cooperated. We met some great people at the park that wanted us to stay on longer and do some additional trail work, but the snow was not very accommodating. Before leaving the area we did however make arrangements to be back in the fall of 2009 after our Alaska trip. We did get to see the desert in the snow. It was amazing, the contrast between the red of Arches and the white of new snow. It is something that I think everyone should see at least once in their lifetime.

Leaving Moab, (we were hoping for warmer weather,_we have stopped in St. George Utah to explore some of the nearby wilderness areas and of course Zion National Park. We decided to explore the Beaver Dam Mountain Wilderness area that straddles Arizona and Utah. It is a small wilderness area that covers a 5 mile stretch on both sides of the BLM road.

We had beautiful weather that day, even though it was a little cold. The area has sporadic sections of brilliant red rock, lava flows and rolling gullies that look flat from far away. We decided to hike out to an area where the wall was red and there appeared to be a balancing rock. In route, we ran across and into numerous Joshua trees, which if you don't know are freaking prickly. We also saw numerous cacti, that someday I will actually learned that names of.

So we are back to our treks through the wilderness and seeing new things.

I hope that I never get bored with this new lifestyle, it is hard to imagine that as possible.

Especially when things like the below picture happen.

In Moab and volunteering for the National Park Service

Short blog to make sure that everyone knows that we are in Moab, UT and planning on stayng here for the month of November, but probably longer. We are volunteering in Arches and Canyonlands as trail roves.

Hiking every day and having the time of our lives. Will post more about our adventures in Moab, but for right now we are off to the Moab Brewery for a well deserved beer.

Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness

Rattlesnake Canyon, the 2nd highly concentration of natural arches in the United States, located in the Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness. One more wilderness to add to our list. It is a beautiful area that few people venture to see. First reason is mainly the location. There is only one road that gets to out to this remote location, one through Glade Park, CO. The other end of the road goes through Colorado National Monument. We had a week pass so went in through the park. It is a mere 13 miles from the turn off of the main road to the trailhead. But be aware those 13 miles took us over an hour to cover. It is probably one of the worse roads that we have driven on in awhile. The last 2 miles were the worse. Once at the trailhead we started down our hike. The whole hike is 3 miles out, not a loop. The first 2 miles takes out around the ridge with some scenic views but it is when you finally get around the ridge that you get the scenery.

One arch after the other in a mile distance.

This is one fantastic area. In the whole time that we were there we did not see another person.

This was probably one of my favorite hikes that we did.

Every time you rounded a corner, another arch or just scenic view awaited you.

If you have an extra day when in the Colorado National Monument Area, definitely do this hike. No People, great arches and classic desert scenery.